NEW DELHI, April 16: At least 18 people died in India today as Maoist guerrillas tried to disrupt polling in a dozen constituencies as the first round of parliamentary elections in the world’s largest democracy ended in 124 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Millions of enthusiastic voters braved the summer heat and patiently waited for hours in serpentine queues under a scorching sun across 17 states and union territories. Voting began at 7am and ended at 5pm in most constituencies. However, it ended by 3pm in Maoist-infested areas in Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa to enable polling staff enough time to safely transport the electronic voting machines to the respective district headquarters before it got dark.

Maoists tried to disrupt polling in villages across a dozen constituencies as soon as voting began in the morning. Security staff bravely fought the extremists and made sure voting continued. Those who died in the violence included five election officials and ten security personnel.

About 143 million of India’s 714 million voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the first of five rounds in 185,552 polling centres. A total of 1,715 candidates belonging to as many as 162 parties were in the fray. Over 300,000 electronic voting machines were used.

Tens of thousands of election staff and security personnel kept vigil as people voted in all the constituencies of Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Island and Lakshwadeep. Voting took place in a few constituencies today in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa and Jharkhand.

At least 18 people were killed as cadres of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist, which seeks to carry out an agrarian-based revolution, targeted polling officials and security personnel across the insurgency hit states.

But voters braved it all to have their say in the biggest election in history. In Andhra Pradesh, once a Maoist bastion, voter turnout was 60-65 per cent. It was 65 per cent in the three parliamentary constituencies of Assam and 60-70 per cent in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, all in the northeast. In Manipur, it was lower at 40 to 50 per cent.

In violence-hit Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, about 50 per cent of the voters turned up to exercise their franchise.

In Kerala, the most literate state in the country, voting was about 60 per cent. It was highest in Ernakulam with 67.5 per cent, but was only 45.4 per cent in Thiruvananthapuram, where former UN under-secretary general Shashi Tharoor is trying his luck as a Congress Party candidate.

The prominent candidates whose political fate has been decided by the voters in today’s polling include Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in Bihar, Civil Aviation Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel in Maharashtra, Union Ministers Jaipal Reddy and Renuka Chowdhury in Andhra Pradesh, Defence Minister AK Antony in Kerala, and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi in Uttar Pradesh.